FORAGE SYSTEMS TO REDUCE THE WINTER FEEDING PERIOD. Gerald W. Evers

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1 Proceedings: Adjusting to High Fuel and Fertilizer Prices Research Center Technical Report No FORAGE SYSTEMS TO REDUCE THE WINTER FEEDING PERIOD Gerald W. Evers Livestock require some form of feed every day. Growing or stored forages (grasses, legumes, forbs, and browse) are used to support livestock throughout the year. Ruminants (four stomach animals) such as cattle, sheep, and goats can utilize lower quality or more fibrous forages than single stomach animals such as pigs. Forage systems are year round programs to provide sufficient nutrients to meet as much of the animal s requirements as possible to produce meat, milk, or fiber. Discussion of forage systems will be limited to beef cattle since that is the focus of this program. Managing a pasture for grazing livestock is more difficult than growing a grain or fiber crop like corn or cotton. When growing a grain or fiber crop, the producer is concerned with the welfare of only one organism, the plant. In a grazing situation, the producer is concerned with two organisms, the plant and the animal, and therefore must understand the growth and development of both. Both must be managed to provide efficient and economic animal performance. There are times during the year that the producer must emphasize the plant and other times the animal. This plant-animal interface is a dynamic (always changing) system. The nutritive level in forage will vary with the class of forages, plant maturity, and season. The amount of forage varies with management level, season, and unpredictable climatic conditions. To further complicate matters, the nutritive requirements of livestock vary with age and physiological stage (young growing animal, cow nursing a calf, dry cow). Forage Distribution Unfortunately, production of warm-season and cool-season forages is not uniform during the growing season in a normal year, much less in an abnormal year. About half of the annual yield of warmseason perennial grasses, such as bermudagrass, normally occurs in a two month period from early May through early July. Growth is poor from mid-july through mid-september because of high temperatures and usually lower rainfall. Cool-season annual grasses such as ryegrass, rye, wheat, and oats produce some forage in late fall, very little from late December through mid-february, and a large production peak in spring. From 75 to 90% of annual clover production, depending on species, occurs in March, April, and May. Part of the problem with grazing pastures is not total annual forage yield but uneven forage distribution during the year. Excess forage production from warm-season perennial grasses in May through early July can be harvested as hay. Because of poor hay drying conditions in March and April, the peak forage production of cool-season annual pastures is best utilized by adding extra animals or harvesting part of the excess forage as silage or haylage.

2 Although lower in nutritive value than other forage classes (Figure 1), warm-season perennial grasses are the predominant forages grown in the southern US. They are well adapted to the mild winter and hot summer temperatures and will survive summer droughts. The grazing season is usually from sometime in April until first frost. The challenge to the forage producer is to maintain the highest nutritive value possible by keeping these grasses in a young growing stage with a high percentage of leaf. A fertilization program based on an annual soil test is the most efficient and economical way to maintain vigorous grass growth. Cool-season forages are higher quality than warm-season forages and can meet the nutrition requirements of all classes of livestock (Figure 1). Over a million acres of annual ryegrass are grown in Texas each year because it is easy to establish, tolerates close grazing, and is adapted to a wide range of soil types. However, it is less productive during the fall and winter than rye, wheat, barley, or oat. If grown in an annual rainfall of less than 30 inches, irrigation will be necessary to obtain good annual ryegrass yields. The other cool-season annual grasses (rye, wheat, barley, or oat) should not be grazed shorter than 3 inches to maintain forage growth. Cool-season winter pastures are best utilized for growing animals with high nutrient needs such as stocker calves and replacement heifers. Nutritive Value of Plants The nutritive value of forages is based on the level of energy, protein, etc. and its availability to the digestive system of the animal. Based on digestibility, forages can be divided into the following five categories: 1) warm-season perennial grasses; 2) warm-season annual grasses; 3) cool-season perennial grasses; 4) cool-season annual grasses; and 5) cool- and warm-season legumes (Figure 1). As percent digestible dry matter increases, animal performance in terms of weight gain, milk production, weaning weight, and conception rate increases. In general, cool-season grasses are higher than warm-season grasses, annuals are higher than perennials, and legumes are higher than grasses. Within each forage class, plant maturity is the major influence on nutritive value. Nutritive value is highest in new growth and decreases with plant age. One reason is that leaves are more digestible than stems and the percent leaves in the available forage decreases as plants mature and become stemmier. The second reason is that the digestibility of both leaves and stems decreases with maturity. Cell contents are 98% digestible and include carbohydrates, protein, triglycerides, and glycolipids. Cell walls are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin but are only from 45 to 75% digestible. About 70% of young plant cells are the highly digestible cell contents and 30% partially digestible cell wall. As the plant matures, the cell wall thickens with age by adding more fiber and lignin, to where the cell wall accounts for 80% of the cell and therefore is less digestible. As forage plants mature, yield increases but protein and digestibility (nutritive value) decrease (Figure 3a, 3b). A compromise between yield and nutritive value is to cut bermudagrass between 3 to 4 weeks for horses and dairy cattle and from 5 to 6 weeks for beef cattle. There is also a seasonal influence on digestibility of warm-season perennial grasses. Nutritive value is the highest in the spring and then

3 decreases as temperature increases, reaching a low point in late July and August (Figure 4). Digestibility improves with cooler autumn temperatures. The challenge to the livestock producer is to maintain the pasture sward in a young growth stage that contains a high percentage of leaves, but has sufficient leaf area to intercept a high percentage of sunlight. A sward height of 5 to 8 inches is appropriate for most sod-type grasses such as bermudagrass, bahiagrass, and dallisgrass. The producer must have an understanding of the animal requirements and nutritive value of forages to manage pastures properly. Animal Requirements The general types of beef operations include cow-calf, raising replacement heifers, and stockering/backgrounding operations. One, two or all three of these operations may occur on pasture on the same farm or ranch. The segment of the beef cattle enterprise with the largest amount of variation in nutritional needs required during the year is cow-calf production. During the 12 month cycle of production, a beef cow goes from low nutritional demands when not producing milk, to high nutritional demands after calving, and to several stages of moderate nutritional requirements (Figure 5). Energy (TDN-Total Digestible Nutrients) and protein priorities of a cow after calving are: cow survival, maintenance and producing milk for the calf, and rebreeding. Knowing these priorities, our management should be to make high quality forages available to cows early in lactation if we are to maximize milk production and rebreeding. Approximately 2 months after calving, a cow will reach her peak lactation, or maximum level of milk production. Non-lactating, mature beef cows require low levels of nutrition to maintain body condition. Excess energy is converted to fat which can be used later when nutritive value of the forage diet is less than the cow requires. Fall-calving cows will have calves weaned in May-June, allowing the cows most of the summer to regain the body condition lost during lactation. Optimum weaning time for late winter and spring born calves is no later than September to allow the cows to regain some body weight before winter. Stocker programs place weaned calves on pasture to gain an additional 200 to 300 pounds before going to the feedlot. The smaller the calf, the higher the nutrient value of the diet must be. Only coolseason pastures of small grains, ryegrass, and clover have sufficient nutritive value for 350 to 500 lb calves to produce average daily gains of up to 2 to 3 lb/day for a 5 to 6 month grazing season. Tifton 85 bermudagrass can produce average daily gains of about 1.5 lb on fall born calves during the summer. Over 90% of the nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, and most other nutrients that are in the forage consumed by livestock passes through the animal and enters to the soil in the urine and feces. This recycling of nutrients from the forage, through the animal, and to the soil where they can be taken up by the plant roots to enhance forage growth must be maximized to reduce fertilizer needs. Livestock must be grazing on pasture as much of the year as possible. Legumes, like clovers, vetch, and alfalfa, have the ability to use nitrogen from the air if the legume plant roots are infected by the appropriate Rhizobium bacteria. This free nitrogen comes at a cost of

4 adding lime and other nutrients to grow the legume. However, if the legumes are only grazed so that the nutrients are recycled, maintenance fertilization after the establishment year should be low. Matching Animal Requirements To Forage Production and Nutritive Value The nutrient requirements of several physiological stages of beef cattle are shown across ranges of dry matter digestibility of forage classes in Figure 2. We will begin with a cow-calf operation using only warm-season perennial grasses. It can be bermudagrass, bahiagrass, or some other warm-season perennial grass. Peak forage production normally occurs in May and June with the best nutritive value in spring (Figure 6). Because the beef cow s highest nutrient needs occur after calving when she is at maximum lactation and needing to rebreed, preferred calving time is February-March (about 2 months before peak nutritive value). Weaning calves in early fall will allow the cow to gain some weight before first frost and match her period of low nutritional needs with the winter feeding period. A minimum of two pastures is required with the designated hay pasture being from 25% to 50% of the total pasture acreage. In March-April, cows and their calves have access to both pastures. About May 1, the hay meadow should be fertilized according to soil test and all the cows placed on the other pasture. From late April to early July, one to two hay cuttings are taken from the hay meadow with normal rainfall. It is important to harvest hay by early July when the nutritive value of the grass is still high (Figure 4). Another advantage is that a pound of nitrogen applied in late April will produce more pounds of forage than if applied during the summer when temperatures are higher and rainfall is lower. Cows and calves can graze both pastures after the last hay harvest until mid-september when forage growth rate is low. About mid-september the calves could be weaned and the hay meadow fertilized with 60 to 70 lb nitrogen per acre to produce a fall hay cutting that is to be stockpiled and grazed in late fall when hay feeding is normally initiated. Sufficient hay should have been made from the one to two hay cuttings to carry the dry cows through the winter. A general guideline for northeast Texas is to have 3 large round bales (5 x 6 ft) per cow. The main disadvantage of this system is that calves are weaned and sold in early fall when calf prices are usually at their lowest. However, the cost per pound of calf gain should be low because cow wintering costs are low since she is not nursing a calf during most of the winter feeding period. A more advanced forage system is where part of the warm-season perennial grass acreage is overseeded with annual ryegrass-clover mixture (Figure 7). This system requires a minimum of three pastures. A hay meadow (about 40% of open pasture), a pasture to be overseeded with ryegrass-clover (about 40% of open pasture), and a third pasture used for feeding hay, and calving (about 20% of open pasture). The hay meadow should never be overseeded with annual ryegrass since ryegrass grows through May and delays growth of the warm-season perennial grass. This results in the loss of the early hay cutting when warm-season grass growth and nutritive value are the highest. With about 40% of the pasture land used as a hay meadow, one hay cutting about June 1 with a yield of 2½ large round bales per acre should be sufficient. If drought eliminates or reduces the first hay cutting, a second hay cutting can be taken in early July.

5 Ryegrass-clover grazing can usually begin sometime in February in East Texas. Cool-season forages have higher nutritive value than warm-season forages so the most digestible forage for the year in this system occurs from February through April. Cows should calve in December January so their peak nutrient needs (after calving) match that of the ryegrass-clover growing period in March and April. These calves can be weaned in July or August before calf prices reach their normal low and allow the dry cow a longer grazing period before the first frost to gain weight and improve body condition score. An additional benefit of this system is a shorter winter feeding period which reduces the amount of hay needed. Calving in winter during harsh weather may increase calf death losses. Another disadvantage of this system is the dependence on fall rainfall to grow a standing hay crop and establish the ryegrass-clover. Cows calve during the winter on the calving pasture. When ryegrass-clover reaches a height of about 6 to 8 inches, cows with calves can be moved from the calving pasture to the ryegrass-clover pasture. If winter pasture is limited, cow-calf pairs can limit graze the ryegrass and clover 2 hr/day or 4 hr every other day. Cows should be able to graze the ryegrass-clover full time beginning in mid-march during the peak ryegrass-clover growing period. When the ryegrass-clover matures in May, it may take some time for the warm-season perennial grass to come back, especially if rainfall is limited in April and May and the stocking rate is reduced for good seed production for volunteer reseeding of the ryegrass and clover. Cows can be moved back to the calving pasture which accumulated grass while the cows were on ryegrass-clover pasture. Following the last hay harvest, cattle can also have access to the hay meadow. The success of this system is dependent on fall rainfall to grow a fall standing hay crop and get ryegrass and clover established. It is important to have a hay barn of some type to store excess hay in case of dry falls. If kept dry, hay will last over 8 to 10 years. Having hay stored under roof will reduce the risk of a dry fall on this pasture system. Rotational grazing can still be practiced by subdividing the hay meadow and ryegrass-clover pastures. Summary Two pasture systems have been presented as models for your beef cattle operation. No two beef cattle operations are exactly alike. They vary in soil, climate, size, producer goals, and amount of time available to manage the operation. Each producer must develop a pasture system that best fits their situation. Important factors in developing a good forage system are desire, knowledge of livestock nutrients requirements and forage management, and patience.

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